Acer Access and Development Program
While playing around with yet another random data set, I came across the Acer Access and Development Program. Here’s the description on the website:
The Acer Access and Development Program (Acer) offers grants to support the efforts of States, tribal governments, and research institutions to promote the domestic maple syrup industry. Supported activities include: promotion of research and education related to maple syrup production; promotion of natural resource sustainability in the maple syrup industry; market promotion for maple syrup and maple-sap products; encouragement of owners and operators of privately held land containing species of trees in the genus Acer to initiate or expand maple-sugaring activities on the land; or to voluntarily make the land available, including by lease or other means, for access by the public for maple-sugaring activities.
So, today, I really learned a few things:
- This program exists; and
- The genus for maple trees is “Acer”
- In Fiscal Year 2021, the Acer Program made $5,428,208.66 in grant awards.
- According to Wikipedia, Quebec accounts for 70% of the world’s maple syrup production.
- According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, the United States produced 3.424 million gallons of syrup, which means there was almost 140 million gallons of sap collected! That’s a lot of syrup!
- According to one report, the global maple syrup market size was valued at $1.49 billion in 2021!